Long-term Peace in Afghanistan will Remain Elusive Without Land Security

Mar 18, 2016 | Mehrab Masayeed Habib
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Decades of war have ravaged Afghanistan’s natural environment. But even after the recent round of fighting comes to an end, the country will continue to face a bleak future without water, forests, wildlife and clean air.

By the time American-led forces toppled the Taliban, Afghanistan had already lost 70 per cent of its forests since 1985, soil fertility and water tables had fallen dramatically and the country’s agricultural productivity had dropped by 50 per cent, according to a landmark United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report released in 2003.

While “over 80 per cent of Afghan people live in rural areas, they have seen many of their basic resources-water for irrigation, trees for food and fuel- lost in just a generation,” the report said.